Maintaining the proper cross slope and longitudinal slope of a roadway is important for water drainage and safe operation of vehicles on the roadway, particularly in mining and construction environments. Cross slope is the transverse slope of the road surface, extending laterally and measured relative to the horizon. Cross slope measures the crown of a roadway, which generally includes a high point at the center and downwardly-sloping sides when viewed as a lateral cross section. Proper cross slope provides a gradient for water runoff into a drainage system such as a street gutter or ditch. Longitudinal slope, by comparison, is the slope of the roadway with respect to the direction of travel relative to the horizon. Longitudinal slope measures the grade of the roadway over a distance traveled, which affects the load on work machines carrying heavy cargo. Traditional methods of measuring cross slope and longitudinal slope include dispatching survey crews to manually measure points along the roadway. This technique is useful but requires a human crew to mark individual points along the roadway one point at a time, which is time consuming and slow.
One method of gathering roadway data using vehicle sensors is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0276939 (the '939 publication), published to Ameen on Dec. 7, 2006. The '939 publication describes a method, apparatus, and system for estimating a grade angle and superelevation angle of a roadway using a vehicle equipped with accelerometers and a yaw rate sensor. Data from these sensors is used to calculate the estimated grade angle and superelevation angle (e.g., bank angle) of the roadway being traversed by the vehicle.
Although the '939 publication provides a means to estimate the grade angle and superelevation angle, it does not disclose using sensors from a work machine. Nor does the '939 publication disclose generating a real-time map of cross-slope and longitudinal slope variances.
The disclosed system is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.